Tip of My Iceberg

In almost any sport, I’ve always been a fan of the underdogs. The ones not expected to do well. During the March Madness college basketball playoffs, those teams that make it, which are not expected to win, are called “Cinderella teams”. In 1985, Villanova, seeded at eight, beat the number one-ranked Georgetown Hoyas in a 66-64 title game.

No one expected it.

This World Cup competition has been a proving ground for underdog teams. Spain is ranked second in the world in soccer. Cape Verde, an archipelago country off the western coast of Africa, with a total population of only 529,600, held Spain to a scoreless tie in Cape Verde’s inaugural game in the World Cup, having never qualified for this tournament before.

Spain was expected to win. By a lot. But the team from the tiny nation kept them from scoring.

Then Cape Verde played Uruguay, which was also expected to win. The feisty Blue Sharks scored their first goals and once again tied the anticipated victors to a 2-2 draw.

It’s always incredible when people or teams who aren’t expected to win surprise everyone with a victory.

The term underdog originated in the brutal and illegal blood sport of dogfighting and bear-baiting. The sport originated in Europe in the twelfth century, where a bear was chained to a post, often with its teeth removed, and specially trained dogs were allowed to attack and kill it. Underdog became a popular phrase in the nineteenth century, where dogs were pitted against each other, and the losing dog ended up pinned beneath the winning dog.

The term has softened much since then, embracing people, sports teams, or even political outsiders who had a social or statistical disadvantage in whatever race they were in.

Life is like that. Some seem to have all the advantages, the skill sets, the finances, and the talents. Some have worked hard to get there; others have inherited much of what they have, financially or genetically.

There have always been the down-and-outers. The ones who never seem to get a break, who, no matter how hard they try, constantly come in last.

Jesus dealt with many of these people, showing compassion and care for them when others would turn their backs on them. He and His disciples landed in the region of the Gerasenes on the eastern side of the Sea of Galilee. A man was possessed by evil spirits, living in the burial caves, naked and violent. The demons in him were terrified when they saw Jesus, knowing He had the power to torment him. A herd of pigs was nearby, and the demons begged Jesus to send them into the pigs rather than the abyss, which was the place of confinement for demons. Jesus did so, and the pigs plunged over the cliff and drowned in the lake below.

“People rushed out to see what had happened. A crowd soon gathered around Jesus, and they saw the man who had been freed from the demons. He was sitting at Jesus’ feet, fully clothed and perfectly sane, and they were all afraid.” Luke 8:35.

The townspeople who saw the man in his right mind were more afraid of the change than of what he had been. They were used to his violence; his calm demeanor frightened them because they didn’t understand it.

It’s often hard to grasp what isn’t expected. Like Cape Verde, a small, first-time participant in the World Cup, bringing two tried-and-true opponents to unexpected ties, the hurting, the unseen, and the unappreciated are seen and loved by God.

No matter what others think of them.